The fear of being seen stops us from going after our dreams. But the fear of being seen as an “influencer” is preventing you from making an impact, which is what you really want to do. Our favorite online personalities make an impact on us. It’s time to let go of your fear and build the online business you’ll be proud of. 

Lissette Calveiro is a Latina entrepreneur, content creator, and business coach for influencers and personal brands navigating the creator economy with intention. As the founder of Influence With Impact®, she leads a creator-first consultancy offering business coaching, talent management, and strategic education to help creators turn influence into income without losing the human behind the brand. With over a decade in the creator economy, Lissette is also a seasoned influencer marketing expert who has managed more than $5 million in brand partnerships across CPG, finance, lifestyle, and tech. She has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Fortune, and is a speaker who brings real talk and real strategy to every stage, including VidCon, Instagram Creator Week, Create and Cultivate, Google HQ, and the White House’s first Creator Economy Summit. She is known for bridging the gap between creators and the industry, bringing transparency to monetization, negotiation, and sustainable growth. Offline, you’ll find her sipping iced matcha, singing with her daughter, starting another DIY home project, or being loud (on purpose) about the issues that matter to her community.

In this week’s episode, Lissette tells us all about how she built her online business with influence and impact. At first, she was afraid of starting her own business. She even once claimed that she’s never been a business owner. But she saw a lack of creator advocacy in influencing marketing spaces and wanted to change that. Now she’s sharing everything she knows about influencer marketing – including contract details, creator rates, and how to get started as a new creator. Tune in to hear all this and more, now! 

Follow Lissette on:
IG: @lissettecalv

LinkedIn: @Lissette Calveiro

Website: https://influencewithimpact.co/ 

Follow Erika on:
Instagram @‌theerikacruz
TikTok @‌theerikacruz
LinkedIn

Website:
http://www.theerikacruz.com

How to work with Erika:

Join the waitlist for the Courage Driven Latina program here!

Join the waitlist for the Magnetic Mastermind here.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello. Hello. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Chingona Revolution Podcast. This is your host, Erika Cruz. I just got back from Puerto Rico last night after seeing Bad Bunny in concert. It was such an amazing trip and there was so many fellow content creators, uh, in Puerto Rico. I actually ran into a few of them in person, and I also have been editing some of my content from there.

And it was just perfect timing that I had this interview lined up. Because if you have ever wanted to be a content creator or have had dreams of being an influencer, but don’t know exactly where to start, or maybe you already are creating content and you don’t know how to monetize your content, then you do not want to miss this podcast interview 

In this episode, we’re not talking [00:02:00] about just owning your power, but we’re gonna show you what it looks like in real time. 

 today I’m sitting down with Lizette, who is a powerhouse Latina entrepreneur. She’s a content creator and the CEO of Influence with Impact. Lizette is a former director of influencer marketing, turn business coach and talent strategist who helps creators turn their influence into income.

Without losing their soul behind the brand. She has worked with Fortune five hundreds. She’s led campaigns that won shorty awards as well as now is mentoring a new wave of creators and building businesses. Rooted in intention, not just. Algorithm hacks. Lizette and I met through TikTok many years ago, and she’s been somebody that I look at as a thought leader in this space and in this conversation we talk about building a personal brand that feels like you, how to advocate for yourself and your rates, even when it makes you feel nervous.

We talk about the difference between being a creator and an entrepreneur and why the energy that you do create with is just as important [00:03:00] as the strategy that you use. So whether you are a coach. A creator or a CEO in the making. This episode is your permission to take up space and show up fully as yourself.

Let’s get into it. Lissette, welcome to Chingona Revolution podcast. I’m so happy that you’re here. 

Lissette: I am so excited to be here. This is gonna be so fun. 

Erika: It is. I think my listeners are going to find so much value because, you know, I think maybe like 10 years ago, wanting to be an influencer when you grew up right, or wanting to become an influencer was like something that was either embarrassing or not really heard of.

Or maybe people thought it wasn’t a real job, but now it’s such a normal. Thing. I think everybody wants to have a personal brand, right? Not, not even like, maybe call themselves an influencer. And you are the best person to have on the podcast to talk about this because you have, you are a creator yourself.

You support creators. You even worked on the brand side, which we’ll talk [00:04:00] about what all that means. So, um, for the few people who may not know who you are, because I feel like everybody who follows me probably follows you two. Tell us a little bit about your, your background. Who’s Lissette? 

Lissette: Yeah. Wow. Every time I ask this question, I’m like, I can give you the fancy formal one or like, I love matcha and DIY, my baseboards over the weekend.

Um, but both are true. And so I’m Lisette, I’m Latina, I’m Cuban Ecuadorian, and I am the founder of Influence with Impact and Influence With Impact, we always say is a creator consultancy. So it’s very unique in the sense that we are on the creator side as it relates to what we do. But we have services all across training brands on how to work with creators, um, supporting creators with building out their career, their personal brand, and of course all the tools to monetize work with brands.

We have things like a calculator. Scripts, et cetera. and then we also support with talent management. So creators who are already working full-time with brands will just take over the negotiation and running that side of the business. but all [00:05:00] of that was built because I have a lot of experience in the influencer marketing space.

So I started now 13 years ago, I was, did the math in my head. I actually started as a PR person. But because I was the young millennial at all the places I worked at, they always said, oh, bloggers, you work with them, right? YouTube, what is that? You work with them. And I just kind of accidentally got dropped into influencer marketing roles before influencer marketing was even a real thing.

And I remember when I paid my first blogger, it was a mom blogger. She was building a kid’s birthday party, you know, using our brand and product. We paid her $300 and I said. I know how to write blogs, why the hell am I not doing this? So that is the day that I also built in the side hustle of being a content creator.

So for the entirety of this 13 year career, I’ve either worked brand side, the creator side, or as founder of my own company. So really having that 360 view of the creator [00:06:00] economy and influencer space is something I’m proud of. 

Erika: Yeah, definitely. Oh man. And with, you know, whenever you say the brand side, for people who may not know what that means, because I work with, I worked with brands, so I understand what it means, but people who are very new to this space may not know exactly what that means.

Can you just differentiate that? 

Lissette: Yeah. So the brand side is us as the brand, hiring the creator, paying you, giving you the brief, making the campaign. And then the creator side is where I, myself, or with on behalf of my creator clients, we are the creator seat. So negotiating with them, asking them how much you wanna get paid for making the content that ends up going live.

Erika: Amazing. And I love the name of your brand of your business because it’s influence with impact. Right. And I feel like people typically don’t put those two words together. They think of influencer and that this is shifting and changing. But at least years ago it was like people thought about skinny tea or the little like growth fair [00:07:00] gummies.

So tell us a little bit about like this business that you’ve built that has put people before platforms, right? And like what is it? Be a creator with impact in a space that a lot of times can really glorify, um, like virality, right? Or numbers rather than impact. 

Lissette: Yeah. A fun piece of lore actually is, it used to be called influence to impact, but after getting with my trademark lawyer, we realized that was actually trademarked.

Um, so we went with, with, but it all worked out. But I say this to say because I thought that influence and influencer was such a dirty word in our industry. So the point of the name play in the business was we’d go from influence to impact. So like an influencer can become an impactful person. But when I was thinking about it, and again, just divine intervention of having to change the name, it actually is more about those things working together because yeah.

If you are an influencer, you have influence. Just own the word, [00:08:00] right? But I know when people say air quotes, it’s a dirty word, they just mean it’s shallow or you know, all you care about is selling stuff. So if you do it with impact, it eliminates that. Almost like, you know, stigma around the word influencer.

So really, really deep into why I built the name. Um, but that’s what I try to make sure all my clients embody, right? Like you asked. Influencer with impact means, yeah, I might be a beauty creator, but I’m doing it because I want people to feel confident in their own skin. I might be a parenting creator, but for me it’s helping moms who are struggling with postpartum anxiety.

And it doesn’t all have to be so deep. I remember I had one creator, she was a fashion creator, still is, and her thing was just making really fun videos of her creative. Super colorful looks. And she was like, I feel like I’m not doing anything important though. And I said, okay, let’s go back to your story.

Why do you care about colorful looks like? Why do you like dressing that way? And she said, I feel like I was always forced to like be quiet or make myself smaller. I didn’t really wear a lot of color [00:09:00] until after college when I finally had a little bit more confidence. And I’m like, so do you think that the colorful clothes you’re sharing is with the intent for others to, you know, be loud, to build more confidence in their lives?

She’s like, yeah. And I’m like, that doesn’t have to be in your bio, but that has to be with the intent, right? Yeah. Because otherwise you’re going to be making content against the algorithm, like you said, and the day that you don’t get. 50,000 views on a video, you’re gonna be really sad about it. But if you’re like, you know what, I got a thousand views, but I know that the real purpose of why I’m sharing this is because one more person is gonna go pick up that neon green jacket tomorrow and I’m gonna feel really good about that.

That is influence of the puff. 

Erika: Oh, that’s such a great response. Especially what you, what you differentiated. That it doesn’t have to be stated, but it has to be in internally. It has to be within you and it has to be within your intent because you’re right. If not, when you post something and it doesn’t go viral or it doesn’t give you the results you want, you’re more likely to give up.

So you have to [00:10:00] understand you’re why behind it. And funny enough that like the things that we kind of expect to go viral, they usually don’t. ’cause we’re almost like forcing it. 

Lissette: Yeah. Yeah. There’s so many times where creators are like, I have this amazing idea. And I’m like, great Post it. It doesn’t do well.

And I’m like, what if it became a series though? Can you post it a few more times or like a few different ways. Yeah. And all of a sudden on video 10, it takes off and it’s not that, oh, video 10 was better than the others, to your point, like it’s just that we finally got consistent and we started posting without caring that much.

And that’s what I try to get a lot of my clients to do, is like truly disconnect from the numbers because I firmly believe the money does follow in different ways. Right. Which we can all jump into, but. 

Erika: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I agree with that, and I think we can all get caught up on the numbers because you and I met through TikTok and my TikTok blew up, and then I ended up getting most of my clients from, so my TikTok blew up.

I started a coaching business, then I started getting most of my clients from [00:11:00] Instagram. So of course I started focusing more on Instagram. My content was then more tailored to my coaching business rather than just creating content to create content. And what happened, my account stopped growing, which is, I can see why.

And, but I think a big part of it was like, oh, my followers aren’t growing. Why invest time in there? And more recently I was like, wait, wait, wait. Like why did we start creating content in the first place? And it was really like creative to create impact and to give people the resources that we wish we had.

And as soon as I kind of came back to that, I posted a video like a week ago. And it didn’t go viral, but it was the first video that went over 10,000 views. And then last night I just got back from Puerto Rico. I was there for the Bad Bunny concert. So exciting. Um, and as you know, bad Bunny’s new album has some salsa in it, and I love salsa dancing.

So I was at the concert, he brings out the salsa band and the song Violet comes on. And I was so excited and I asked my cousin, Hey, can [00:12:00] you just record a clip of me dancing? And she’s like, oh, this is gonna be great because there’s bad Bunny, there’s the salsa band, and then there’s you dancing. So she goes to go record the clip, and then the guy sitting directly behind me was like, Hey, can I dance with you?

And I was like, oh, okay. Why was he a like salsa DJ from New York that knew how to dance really well and. We end up dancing and he posts this video on TikTok and it’s like at 500,000 views and it was just outta nowhere. But what was the intent there? The intent was like we were two people who love salsa music that were so excited that this modern artist is bringing back salsa.

And we were two people just having fun. And of course that one, like even Ritz crackers like commented on it and it was just this reminder of like, this is the joy of creating content. But I think we’ve lost that and we’ve gotten so focused on is this gonna get me the money that I want? Is this gonna let me leave my job?

So all of [00:13:00] that. So then ask this question. What would you say to somebody who’s just getting started and they know they wanna make money from this, but maybe, um, that intent of wanting to make money from it is blocking them from even generating money. 

Lissette: Right. Amen. I love this question. So if you wanna make money as a content creator, I’m sorry to say, you have to make content.

So kind of in the conversation that we’re having, it is the reality that you have to figure out what content you wanna make, who it’s for, why it matters to you and or to them, and how you can stick with it consistently. And I think that’s the piece that a lot of people miss. Consistency is such a big buzzword, but for me, consistency just means I like the thing I’m doing enough to just keep doing it.

It doesn’t have to be that complicated, right? So once you figure out what you wanna make. Who it’s for, why it might matter. Figure out your style, right? Like play with vlogs, play with speaking to camera. Play with not just [00:14:00] trends, ’cause trends come and go, but like different styles until you find what feels comfortable for you to keep creating around.

And that first part of really figuring out what, who, why that does take experimenting. That does take getting out of your comfort zone. I have a lot of creators who come to me and they’ll say, but like, what exactly do I need to do? And I’m like, you actually just need to throw spaghetti at the wall for a little.

Like give yourself a month to just like start playing with different things. See what feels good, brainstorm like who you wanna be talking to, what conversations you wanna have. Those things are actually really important. I do not think creators need to start with a whole plan. I think you need to start with an intention and kind of a direction of where you think you might wanna go.

Play a little, give yourself like a month or two to play. And then hopefully by the end of that you’ve come out with a more clear, like, this is the direction I wanna go, who it’s for, what I’m doing, why it might matter to them. And because you’ve been experimenting, you probably already have gotten a little bit outta your comfort zone, have figured out a style that you really [00:15:00] love.

A good example I like to share is I had one client who was like, I just like, am not showing up right now. And we asked her to get really uncomfortable. We asked her to go and make videos, either walking down the street, selfie cam mode, sitting in her car, selfie cam mode, and just talk like, we do not need you to, you know, figure out how to do a really engaging vlog.

We don’t need you to do anything other than. Just share the message. Um, and she did that. Is that the style of video she wants to do forever? No, but the uncomfortable got her through to continue being consistent in the other ways she intended to be. Right? Because then all the other stuff doesn’t have to feel so perfect.

So really long answer to say, you’ve got to really just figure out that direction, but you won’t figure it out unless you play and experiment and give yourself room for that. 

Erika: Oh yeah. And then even whenever you do figure it out, people evolve, right? Like now I’m talking about manifestation. Well before I was talking about courage and it’s like you’re going to shift and you’re going to evolve, but you’re never going to get to that place unless you take the first [00:16:00] step.

So I love that answer. 

Lissette: You bring up a really good point of pivoting, and that could be a whole podcast in itself, but a lot of creators, like I was saying, they are so afraid of getting it wrong that they, when they come in with like a hot plan, they’re like, this is what I’m making, and that, and don’t give themselves the room to experiment or have that wiggle room to move around a little bit.

They end up burning out because then they feel like I’m stuck here. Or to your point, imagine if you said, I’ve only created about courage. I am stuck here. Then you’re gonna be really unhappy and burn out. Your audience is gonna notice. People are gonna stop engaging. But if you’re able to say, actually what I really enjoy right now in this chapter of my life is talking about manifestation.

Let me almost like wiggle people there. Right? It’s not like I’m talking about courage and now I’m going to be a food recipes account. That’s a hard pivot. I’d probably suggest to start a new page. But like you start trickling in manifestation stories, you start trickling in those [00:17:00] convos until you move them into the new direction you wanna be in.

So that kind of like the way of experimenting is something that will stay with you even if later on you wanna change a little bit of what you’re doing. 

Erika: Yeah, that makes so much sense. 

I just thought about this because you became a mother. Right? So I think that some pivots, they just naturally occur whenever life happens, right? Like if people go through divorces, when people become mothers, like there’s, there’s naturally pivots that will occur and that will redirect you.

And those, like they, they almost. They’re almost inevitable. Right. Have you seen that with your creators as well? Especially people who’ve been in the space for a long time? 

Lissette: Yeah. Um, I think this is a good, a good way to use myself as an example. As life changes, we change, we are people. That’s why I’m a big believer.

I I really only work with personal brands. So if you own like a product based business, I, I don’t serve you as well because I have [00:18:00] completely different opinions. And a big conversation is if you’re following a person, first of all, we have to see the person because otherwise you are locking yourself in as a product with, without room to grow, without room to change.

And I’ve seen this happen throughout, not with clients that I work with, but just really big creators. Right. They’ll get to a million followers off of one thing, but we know nothing about them as people. Hmm. And the moment a circumstance changes in their life. People tune out. A really good example is, I do not know their handle, but there was the corporate guy creator.

Oh, mm-hmm. Basically, yeah, who was like, would make funny videos about, you know, romanticizing working in corporate America, like vlog style, whatnot. And then of course he eventually was making enough money as a creator that he quit his corporate job and people stopped falling because they said, well, we were here for your corporate experience and that sucks for him.

And of course it, it’s, I would say I understand the sentiment of what [00:19:00] the heck, people don’t wanna just support whatever I’m doing next. But if people dunno the person, they’re not gonna wanna do that. So big believer in, no matter what you’re creating about whatever niche you’re in, whatever category you’re in, we need to see the person with boundaries, right?

Like you get to the right, to privacy and boundaries because then once you start changing things just change with you. And I think again, as myself as an example, becoming a mother, it’s so funny ’cause I said, well, I don’t really think I wanna like talk about being a mom or like. Talk about my baby. Like it’s, you know, I, I’m a girl boss.

Okay. Um, after having her, um, I went on what I called my faux turn and leave, which was, I would still create content, but I would have zero strategy spaghetti at the wall, just post and like, let things happen. And really, again, give myself room to like, figure out what feels good for me. And through that, obviously the only thing that sucked up my 24 hours of the day was having this child.

Um, and coming back to work with this [00:20:00] child, I realized there was actually a story here about. Being an entrepreneur who’s also a mother. No, my page is not really gonna show like my child and what she’s doing. It is me. My perspective as someone who has to balance both worlds now and what’s nice is that while yes, that will attract parents, I get so many non-parents who talk to me about, you know, I’m a caregiver and I resonate with a lot of what you’re sharing.

I am someone who has three jobs right now. So I resonate with a lot of what you’re sharing with like limited time running a business. So it has worked out because again, I didn’t hard pivot into, and we are mom account now. It is, I started leaking the conversations, connecting the dots for people. I will lose people who do not care or who maybe are triggered right by like, I do not like this topic.

I do not wanna watch or follow. But then I think we’ve built such a bigger community of people who again maybe directly relate to my experiences or adjacently do and think it’s interesting. So definitely wanna make sure the person is shown and everything you do [00:21:00] to do this successfully. 

Erika: Ooh. As you were sharing that, it also made me think about all these faceless accounts.

What’s your opinion about the faceless accounts? 

Lissette: I mean, you can make a quick buck because faceless accounts have unlimited access to really go viral. Because think about it, if I have to film a bunch of videos hoping that one of them is gonna hit, that’s a lot of time off my plate. But when you’re using AI and stock footage, you can literally just sit on your computer and post 30 videos in an hour.

Yeah. Um, can you make a quick buck? Sure. Can you build a brand? No. So the moment the algorithm stops being on your side, you’re done. The moment that the product that you’re selling is not interesting enough, you are done. And what is crazy is the only things I’ve seen the faceless account sell is like how to create a faceless account or like how to sell a product with social media.

Erika: Mm-hmm. 

Lissette: That has a cap. Right? Like you can’t all learn how to. Have faceless accounts that are selling faceless account tips. Do you know what I mean? It’s like you’re [00:22:00] all, it is like a pyramid scheme, honestly. And so for me for sure, that’s exactly what 

Erika: I thought about. As you said, it’s just teaching you how to do the same thing.

Lissette: Yeah. It is like, I will teach you how to do this and then you’ll teach someone how to do this, and then eventually everyone will know how to do this. So no one has to sell. And I, I, again, just as like a business strategy, highly do not recommend. Um, but I can understand the appeal of making a quick buck and, you know, everyone has a different financial situation.

Erika: Yeah. 

Lissette: Yeah. 

Erika: Amazing. Okay, so back to the question I was asking earlier, what made you go from working with a brand to becoming a full-time creator coach and then eventually starting your own brand? Yeah, so what’s interesting 

Lissette: is I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I actually used to say this all the time where I was like, yeah, the one thing I’ll never do is run my own business.

Um, but I think it’s also just like the Latino ingrained in me that was like, you went to school for this. You must do this. You must have this job forever. Right? And, um, I was about to get to the VP level, so I was up for [00:23:00] a promotion that year and I thought vp, you know, again in my family’s culture is like, wow, like our daughter is a vice president at an advertising agency.

I was like, that’s kinda, that’s the end. So what comes after that? Nothing. And I started to have this existential crisis where I was like, I have no idea what’s gonna, like what the point of this even is. And throughout then I started reflecting throughout the, I would say last four years before that, all of the experiences I had was building influencer programs at these big agencies.

Is that I was at, I was building, if you’re in the creative. Media world, you might know what I mean by capabilities, decks and capabilities. Decks are basically the advertising agency whenever they go to potentially get a new client, it’s a deck of like what we do and like our point of view and our systems and our frameworks.

And I built all of that from scratch for a lot of these big agencies. So I, you know, was like, wait, [00:24:00] I’m being their entrepreneur. I am building these things from scratch. I go to the new business meetings and I pitch clients for them when it, as it relates to influencer. I also at the same time remember, was working as a creator.

So I remember that year. I finally hit the milestone of, I had basically earned my first ever New York salary that year, which was $60,000. That’s how I moved to New York, was on a $60,000 salary. Don’t at me. Yes, I was broke. Um, and basically I said, well, if I could survive in New York on 60 K and content creation is bringing me 60 K per year, I could definitely quit my job right now as a safety net, right?

So like that was really the, it was a financial decision to like literally pull the plug. And once I made that income goal, I felt like I was good. I also just transparently had three to six months of emergency savings at the time. So that is just me personally. I know some people just jump and it works [00:25:00] out, but that was not me.

So once I had that, I realized, Lisette, you’ve been the entrepreneur. Just go do it yourself and see what happens. And that whole year, so I actually quit. Uh, December, 2019. So I spent my first year in entrepreneurship through the pandemic. That started for another day, but I said I’ll give myself a year.

Mm-hmm. So through the end of December, 2020. If I don’t make a single dollar, I will just go look for a corporate job again. I feel qualified enough to get one, and if it works out right, if I end up meeting, you know, my financial needs to pay my rent to have flexible disposable income, we are gonna keep going.

And it really was just one of those like, all right, it worked for one year, let’s keep going. It was not, there was no business plan. It was, I believe in myself and my network enough that people will hire me because they know my value. So that requires showing up. And so that transition was, I knew that, again as a content creator, I had [00:26:00] to show up because I was getting brand partnerships.

But that’s when I also made sure my platform always had, it was called the marketable millennial before. So it always had like creator tips and you know, market, like how to market yourself in this industry. That was the point of it. But now I said, okay, so as a content creator, right, so the lifestyle creator, I’m getting brand deals.

But if I want clients, I need to show up as an authority as well. Mm-hmm. So that year I kind of worked on making sure my platform, again, micro pivots, making sure my platform like, still kept that lifestyle tone that brands liked of me, but then showed up as an authority, as an expert way more than ever before.

I used to do this a lot on my blog, but now it was like Instagram, TikTok, like you guys needed to know I was the go-to creator, monetization person. Mm-hmm. And that really worked out because that’s what allowed me to get coaching clients. That’s what allowed me to get people buying courses and the creator templates and all of these things.

I’ll never forget I had a video go viral [00:27:00] that was about, um, the platforms. I would sign up if I was a brand new creator. And that video, um, ended up going viral or by viral It did hit a million, but in the beginning it hit like 10 K and I was like, oh my God, I’ve made it. Right. So this, oh my God, I’ve made it.

And that day I’ll never forget, I literally went on my, you know, editing apps and I created A PDF with all of the platforms I would join. ’cause I had this in my brain. It was 50 platforms. IBB hyperlinked it. I had a virtual assistant at the time who helped and did it with me or for me, like the formatting.

I put it up on my Lincoln Bio as the video kept going, I updated my caption and I was like, Lincoln Bio, buy my guide. It was $5. Okay. Once it hit a million that day or that week, really? I made a thousand dollars off of that product. And I was like, wow. Oh my God, I’ve cracked it. I was like, I know if I just keep sharing these tips and, you know, funnel it into this program or product or scripts.[00:28:00] 

I’ve got it right. So it was, it was nice to see that first year was literally just experimenting. Um, and just like, okay, I’m gonna go make this PDF. It had no design, no, I did not have a color palette. I just put the information out there. And so that whole first year, it was really just that, it was like experimenting, making sure I kept showing up ’cause it was important.

But for me to make money, I did need to have the services to, you know, send people to. So, and kinda a, a, a long story and a tangent, but that was the big decision maker was like, uh, if I could make it buy with this amount of money, let’s just see what else I can do. And I spent that first year just saying, 

Erika: yeah, and you brought your ring up.

So many points because in my program, courage Driven Latina’s, literally about like having the courage to go after the thing that you want. And a lot of the blocks that you mentioned are things that I hear my clients. Go through all the time. It’s like, I’ve spent so much time getting this degree, I need to work in this.

I’ve had, you know, I have benefits, I have this, this job and title that like my parents never had [00:29:00] access to. So like all the things that kind of keep us in that safety net. Um, but I love your reframe where you were like, yeah, I can just go back to get a job. I’m really already an entrepreneur, but there’s a cap to how much I can earn.

Um, so thank you for sharing that As on the topic of money. ’cause I know I’ve asked like, okay, for people who are just getting started, um, I wanna talk a little bit about, uh, negotiating and how to advocate for yourself as a creator. So let’s say there’s somebody listening who’s already created content and perhaps they have already, um, worked with a brand but are having a hard time negotiating.

Uh, obviously you worked on the brand side, so you already kind of knew what was going on behind the scenes, but then also as a creator, you’ve had to like advocate for yourself. And if I actually remember correctly. And I could be remembering not not that accurately, but I think you’ve even shared, uh, how a, you’ve shared, you’ve been very transparent and you’ve done it in such a professional way where you’ve like, you know, opt out [00:30:00] any emails, but you apparently shared like people when people were low balling you or, um, or maybe even it wasn’t you, it was somebody else’s page, but like the agency accidentally CC’d them and they were like, can’t we just go with one of the white creators we typically go with?

Or something like that. She was brown, she wasn’t Latina. I wanna say. She was like, um. Some type of like, I, I might be Indian. Yeah. Anyways, but she like, she blocked out the names as well. So all of this to ask the question of how do we negotiate as women of color? 

Lissette: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love this topic. So one of the very.

Sad realities of when I had a lot of brand time. So this might have changed lately and I hope it has, is the people who would ask for the least amount of money were black and brown creators. And it was just insane to see that a lot of us, and I think to your point, work with so many women in this space who [00:31:00] like, we are afraid to ask for more because we are taught to not like, like don’t ask her too much, be grateful.

And that’s a whole societal problem, right? Mm-hmm. So, of course, myself in the brand side role, I always did my best to make it as equitable as possible. So if a white creator was asking me for $5,000 and this creator, the Latina creator was asking me for three. I’d probably say, Hey, I have five. Can we throw an extra story set in there?

So kind of like trick them into raising their rates by not just by saying, Hey, raise it to 5K. ’cause I think that that actually can be a little bit of a shock, right? So I’d say we added a story deliverable, right? Just something easy that I know, or I’d say we increase the usage, right? And because we did that, we are giving you 5K.

So I always tried to make it as equitable as possible. And then on the flip side, trying to negotiate down the other creators so that it would be as even as possible. Um, and I did that for a while [00:32:00] and I remember. The when working creator side, one of the things that I notice is whenever I was sharing rates that again, felt like the rates that see white creators make, and especially white male creators, like that’s a whole nother topic.

They are like, we are so rare to find in this industry that we’re gonna ask for three times the amount of money. Um, but when I was sharing my rates, I always made sure to validate with why, which I think there’s a conversation that could be had about, uh, why do we always have to do this, right? Why do we always have to validate when other people just like go and ask for it?

But I know that on the flip side, right, if a brand is seen, a creator’s asking for 5K, no questions asked, and another creator is asking for seven k. They’re gonna be like, why? I’m gonna go with the five, I’m gonna go with the cheaper one. Mm-hmm. So I got into this habit of validating with why. So that the number is not the reason they say no.

So me asking for more is not the reason they say no, they, it might [00:33:00] be that, hey, the numbers I shared are just like, not what you’re looking for. You’re looking for someone who has, uh, more shares or someone who converts really well on stories. And maybe that’s not me, but at least I feel like I’ve validated myself enough where I feel good about myself.

Mm-hmm. Not me selling to you and hope that you pick me. It’s, I’m gonna tell you why I’m a badass. I feel really good about it. Take it or leave it. You could say no, but I still feel good about myself. So having those two experiences was really interesting because I really did see that like some of the most amazing creators were undercharging.

And again, the reality is, as a brand, I can’t go back to my. CMO or main client and say, yeah, you know, um, this person was asking for more and this person was asking for less. I’m gonna say no to the person who’s asking for less. They’re gonna be like, are you dumb? Take the one who’s asking for less. It’s way better for us.

They’re like, way more bang for your buck. You hear that all the time in marketing. Mm-hmm. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna increase their rates, but I’m gonna validate a little bit to my [00:34:00] CMO. Oh yeah. We added an extra month of usage, right? Like the least amount of trouble for the creator possible, right?

Yeah. So that they, they are now boom, their rates are higher. I get to hire them. I get to, it’s not, you know, the cheapest person. It is truly the most value for me because it’s a really valuable person for a really awesome rate. Um, so yeah, just seeing both sides has always been very interesting. But I think if you lead with data, it makes things a lot easier to negotiate.

Erika: I hope you’re enjoying the show. We are gonna get right back to today’s episode, but I just had to drop in and check with you. How are you feeling? How are things going? If you find yourself frustrated or maybe shaming yourself because you have not taken the action that you wanted to take, maybe you are just tired of starting and stopping or overthinking, or worrying about what you, your coworkers are gonna think about you or your family members are going to think about you if you finally start that project that you’ve been wanting to start.

I just want you to know that I see [00:35:00] you. I feel you. I overthought starting my Instagram page for two years before I actually started it, so I get it. I totally understand. And if you find yourself in this position where you know that you wanna make 2024 your year and you’re ready. To stop procrastinating and start taking action, then I invite you to Courage Driven Latina.

Courage driven Latina is my signature program. Or you will legit change your life in 90 days because we are going to help you take action on a courage project in 90 days. I also recently introduced the Courage Project Paths, which I’m so excited about. So you essentially get to pick the path that you want to work on, and you can work on more than one path because the program is now 12 months.

Right. But we recommend One path at a time, and I’m so excited about these paths because. We have a confidence, courage project path. So if you want to speak up in your relationships or maybe speak up at work, this would be the perfect path for you. Or if you just [00:36:00] want to establish more self-trust. The second path we have is the content creation courage project path.

So this is perfect for you if you want to create. An Instagram page, a TikTok account, or perhaps you are ready to launch your own podcast. We even have a whole podcast course inside of Courage Driven Athena. The third path is the career courage project path. So if you know that you wanna be at the director level or the VP level, or maybe you’re ready to change your job to a different job, then this would be the perfect path for you.

Maybe you’re like, you know what? Entrepreneurship is cool, but it’s not really for me. I really wanna be a boss ass mommy, then this is gonna be the path for you. And last but not least, we have the Ana CEO path. So if you know that you wanna be an entrepreneur and you know you wanna start your business, whether it’s a coaching business or a a physical business, if you wanna sell a product, then this is the perfect path for you.

Again, because this program is now 12 months, you can work on more than one path. Join the wait list for Courage Driven Latina by going to the link down below in [00:37:00] the show notes, because when you join the wait list, you are going to be the. First to know when we open doors and you may even get some early access.

So ensure that you join the wait list. I cannot wait to work with you. We have some incredible women in this program, and the fact that it’s now a year long, we’ve already seen so much transformation. I can’t wait to work with you. Let’s get back to the show and don’t forget to join the wait list.

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I have, I feel like we are probably gonna need to do a part two about this if you would like, because I have so many questions still that are just like popping up in my, in my mind. Um, so what about whenever people are getting, how do people differentiate if something is a legit partnership or not?

And my friends come to me all the time with this, like Erika, and they’ll send me the screenshot and they’re like, is is this legit? Um, typically whenever people are like, oh, here’s an affiliate link and we’ll give you a percentage. Personally, I don’t waste my time on that. I don’t know if we’ve seen that work for other people, but, [00:38:00] um, especially whenever they’re like, you just we’re gonna give you a heavy, like a big discount.

It’s like, no, you should never have to upfront pay for anything. So how do you, uh, support like either your clients or your friends with like knowing if something is a legit inquiry or not? 

Lissette: Yeah, the first thing you have to look at is the email of the person. I know that sounds like a given, but so many people have been duped by not realizing It’s like, uh, adobe@gmail.com.

You know, like that is the first, first sign. And also hot tip from one of my friends in tech. You should copy the email into like a browser. Um, because sometimes they’ll use like special characters that look like letters. So it might be, you know, lisette@apple.com. But the a is like a random symbol that just happens to look very closely like an, but if you drop it into your browser, it won’t take you anywhere.

Um, so anyway, that’s just like one step one. Um, the second thing is [00:39:00] definitely the way they personalize it or don’t, like, you can tell there are clients who will send us things and say, is this legit? 

Erika: Mm-hmm. And 

Lissette: it’ll be like, hi, Lissette Calv, or Hi. Blank and there’s nothing. Mm-hmm. And then the pitch is down there.

A brand who wants to work with you will always personalize it to you. They might not personalize. Like I love that video that I saw the other day, but like at least it’ll say, Hey Erika, so lovely to meet you. I’ve been following you for a bit. Or, I love how you talk to Latinas in your platform. Here’s what we’re doing.

Right? Like literally just an a quick intro, human to human is the biggest green flag. And then the opposite is the biggest red for me. Um, and then of course after that, I would say to your point, asking to pay for anything, even if it’s pay for shipping of the product, you should not have to pay for anything when you are working for someone else.

There are rare exceptions. Like I work with some creators who are in the food space who have to like go buy the thing at the grocery store, but that’s in your contract. Right? And that’s reimbursable. [00:40:00] Or travel creators who have to pay for like their accommodations to get reimbursed afterward. Um, but if you are seeing that pitch or in that conversation that you need to pay for anything, huge, huge red flag.

You did mention affiliate, I think. Um, something that’s really interesting about affiliates, some creators who convert really well. Like if you post something and it sells, that’s amazing for you. I think as long as it’s no strings attached, why not? Right? So for example, I have a few brands who, like one of them, I’m always looking at my desk and it’s funny ’cause I always say this to creators, I’m like, shop your desk.

’cause there’s probably a brand you use on there and there always is. But road that microphones, those are microphones I’ve purchased in the past. I love them. I use them and they saw me tag them and they reached out and said, we’d love to make you an affiliate. And you know. Those strings attached. Cool.

’cause I’m gonna talk about you anyway. So signing up for an affiliate program. If I don’t have to post, if I don’t have to do anything, [00:41:00] great. ’cause I’m probably posting about you anyway. Um, so those are the only instances where I’m like, you could say yes to that, but otherwise to your point, if that is the sole way that you’re making money, it’s a big no, a big red flag for me.

And develop the, what I usually tell my clients to say is remind them that it takes more than one time for a consumer to convert. And that’s just a marketing 1 0 1. It takes like seven times for someone to see something and be like, oh yeah, I should buy that. So for you to convert. Enough to make the money back in labor, the labor that it takes for you to make content for them, you’re gonna have to make seven videos.

That’s just not fair. So if they’d like for you to guarantee any sort of content, they’re gonna have to pay a fee for just the sole labor of you existing and making that. 

Erika: Totally, yeah. Okay. I love what you said about affiliates and that makes so much sense. If it’s something you’re already using and posting about, then it makes sense.

I think a lot of inquiries I’ve gotten are for like these apple cider gummies or you know, things I’m [00:42:00] not posting about and I’m like, that makes no sense. I’m not gonna go out of my way to post something for the PO chance of getting a few dollars here and there. Um, so thank you for clarifying that ’cause I think that’s such a good like rule of thumb.

And then the next thing I wanted to ask you, which you’re already kind of getting into, what is it that people should look for within contracts? 

Lissette: Ooh, my favorite thing. I always have to say this is not legal or financial advice, but, uh, I, I am a big fan of, I, I have my own, my team and I use this like rubric that we have advice, uh, got an advice from our attorney on, but the real big things that we’re always looking for, number one is the de.

So when you are, let me take one step back. When you are negotiating with a brand, you always, always have to know the deliverables, which means the things you’re literally doing. 

Erika: Mm-hmm. 

Lissette: The usage or licensing of your content. Any exclusivity, and I’ll explain this in a second, uh, the timeline. And also just [00:43:00] any other, like, I like to ask for example about like payment terms.

Like do you know how quickly I would be paid? That’s like a bonus question. But those first ones, I said, those are really important because they become the basis of your contract. And if you didn’t ask about usage, if you didn’t ask about exclusivity, it’s a really awkward conversation later. So all that to say, if you ask about these things upfront when you’re reading your contract, we wanna look for that.

So we wanna look for deliverables, we wanna make sure that everything is super clear as discussed. And let me tell you, probably like 40 or 50% of the time it’s not, you’ll see something like, you know, you got hired for one Instagram reel and then when you go to the deliverables it says one Instagram reels minimum 60 seconds, two, you know, nine by 16 images submitted for cover photos.

Like, we didn’t talk about any of that, so we’re gonna remove that, right? Or we’re gonna say like. The cover photo will be a freeze frame of my video. We’re gonna say, uh, the video’s gonna be 30 seconds ’cause that’s the length of my videos [00:44:00] that perform well. Like, you’re gonna, you’re gonna have to like, read the deliverables and make sure it’s exactly what you intend to make.

Yeah. Um, the second thing I mentioned was usage and licensing. You can control f look up license, look up usage, look up perpetuity. Um, and basically there’s gonna be sections about how they get to use your content. And organic usage is the most common. Meaning the brand can repost it. It, right? Um, but then when you get into white listing paid, and this could also be a whole nother podcast about it, but all of those words mean that they’re gonna be using your content for a longer period of time.

So you have to have charged for that because yes, if I post something today, and maybe it’s a collab post with me in the brand, maybe they’re gonna repost it within 30 days. That’s cool. I don’t care. We’re partners like that feels normal. But if we have, and I just had a situation with a creator like this, let’s say a year of usage, and a year later they post this video and she’s actually working with a competitor right [00:45:00] at that time.

’cause a year has passed. So she’s working with a different brand right now in this similar category. Now that brand is like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We didn’t know you were working with our competitor. Oh shoot. No, it’s ’cause I had a year usage. Right. So they just happen to repost the video later. So you see how that might affect your work, which is why you wanna charge for it.

I’m not saying, oh my god, red flag. Yes. Like bring it down if you can, but charging for it is just as good ’cause it’s guaranteed income now. Right? Yeah. Um, then perpetuity is a word I said I always control f that that basically means they own your content for the end of time. Another way that they might say, this is work made for hire.

And that basically means like, we own everything you’re making in this campaign. And that is something that I will say like, sadly, like 70% of the time is in a contract. Even if we already agreed that it was being licensed in a specific way, it’s always there because a lot of legal teams will drop it in just to see just like, let’s cover, you know, our asses and see if we can like own the content and [00:46:00] see if they don’t notice.

Please notice, please remove it. And every time I red line that out, they’re like, oops, sorry. Like, yes, I under, I know what you’re really trying to do. Which is like, let’s see if we can just like save ourselves there. But those things on usage, I mentioned exclusivity and I’ll go through these quickly, but exclusivity just means like you have to be exclusive to them and not work with anyone else in that category for a certain period of time.

Why would we charge for that? ’cause now we could potentially lose business if a competitor had come. And I think when I say competitors, sometimes people who don’t do this regularly are like. Well, yeah, ethically, like I hope you don’t work with competitors, but you have to realize that oftentimes it’s things like that it’s a competitor for the brand, but as a consumer, I wouldn’t think is a big deal.

Mm-hmm. So in the example of the creator with this like year video pops up a year later, it was actually two different destinations. So obviously people can travel to multiple destinations, but destination A thought, destination B was a competitor of theirs. So they didn’t wanna see [00:47:00] that. 

Erika: Hmm. Um, 

Lissette: another example recently was a creator of ours is working with a, um, probiotic brand and they basically said the creator has to be exclusive and cannot work with any, uh, vitamin company, supplements, company, you know, whatever.

And this person is in the food space. Yeah. I might not tell people and take this other probiotic next week. Yeah. But maybe I’ll say, and even myself as a consumer, I like this brand’s probiotics, but I really like this brand’s protein powder. And I really like this brand’s multivitamin. People shop different things all the time, right?

So it would be normal for a creator to take those campaigns. But if the brand is saying, no, no, no, you have to be exclusive, then you better charge for that. So 

Erika: yeah. 

Lissette: And then the last thing is, again, like in contract, I’m looking for those nuances. So timeline, I wanna make sure timeline is clear, and also the timeline is mutually agreed upon.

So not just, I have to submit content on the 12th. I submit concept 12, brand provides feedback by the 21st in [00:48:00] order for creator to film by the 30th. You know, so like, really try to make sure it includes everyone. ’cause sometimes that screws creators over. Um, and then I mentioned payment. That’s another just nuance thing that everyone has their own preferences.

I personally, net 30 is something I’m used to. So if it’s net 30, we’re cool. If it’s anything more than that, you have to pay me up front. So that’s like an example of something that I personally use as a boundary. Um, so for example, if it was net 60, I say you have to pay me. Net 60 is invoiced. The moment our project starts, or at least 50% is invoiced at the moment, our project starts.

And I do that to protect myself because. Usually by the time the content is live now I’m gonna get probably paid soon, at least something, right? And if I don’t get paid that 50% red flag, oh my God, I’m taking this down. So just like little ways to protect yourself. I also love to look for revisions and feedback control F, because some brands will be like unlimited revisions.

No, no, you’re getting one [00:49:00] revision. And that is what I always stick to at most. I’ll allow two, but that’s like a really rare case, or like a really big company that has a lot of people involved. But yeah, I think those are the big, big ones. And obviously a lawyer will say, look for all the other protections, like, you know, confidentiality, indemnity, all these words that like you can consult a lawyer on.

But typically those things are pretty standardized in contracts and the others are not. Yeah. 

Erika: Yeah, totally. And everything that you’ve mentioned, I’ve hit like ops, I’ve learned the hard way with a lot of these, but, um, especially with like the exclusivity, I was doing a partnership with an insurance company and then there was another insurance company that contacted me about speaking at their event.

But because I was doing a video and the, I had already signed the other contract, I had to say no to the speaking engagement. And luckily they came back. And this year I’m able to work with them in person because they have like a Hispanic Heritage Month event. And I’m like, oh, yay. Like, I’m so glad it gets to work out.

But yeah, it really, like, I should have charged the first company more because [00:50:00] I missed out on this other opportunity. Um, you’ve talked about so many amazing things. Um, you are a wealth of knowledge. I think the last thing that I wanna touch on. Is like people still think that this might not be a real job.

So like, can we share some numbers? Like, I’m happy to also transparently share like how much I’ve made with certain things and like when I’ve made exceptions and I’m willing to do things for less because maybe it was aligned. But, um, you as a, as a creator, but also as a creator coach, like you don’t have to disclose like companies or names or anything, but what are like, you know, like if you could give us maybe follower count and then like how much somebody made, because I think that.

Thing people struggle with is how much do I charge and how do I value myself? How do I know that I’m worth charging X amount? Which obviously they are, but I think having some hard numbers is gonna be helpful for people. 

Lissette: Yes. And just like everyone else who would ask this question, I think we always think about follower as the lead.

Where follower [00:51:00] leads is probably as line item number one as I like to say. Because yes, there’s a reality that if you’re a bigger creator, you can slide up and down that just like starting, starting rate. Mm-hmm. So the typical rate that we see is anywhere from one to 7% of your follower account. Is that like line item number one?

1% would be for something that you’re like, I’m really not good at this. For example, a lot of my clients are like stories. I get like zero views on stories. So that’s gonna be a 1% like line item. It’s not gonna be a big one. Mm-hmm. But reels that take a bunch of time to produce. Yeah. That’s 7%. Right. Um.

That’s like a starting point. Number one, I always have to whip up my calculator when I say this because I’m like, I wanna give you a literal example and then my brain can’t think in that way. Um, so if you have a hundred thousand followers as an example, you’re probably gonna get starting, right? The line item number one is anywhere from one to $7,000.

Okay. So 7,000 would be for like really highly engaged community. Their content is super produced and [00:52:00] awesome. Mm-hmm. Um, but all the things I mentioned just now with contracts, the reason we ask upfront is ’cause we wanna charge for them. And that is where a lot of creators leave money on the table.

That’s also where a lot of creators who are smaller can make a lot more money because they get to charge not just for their follower, but for all these other like terms and conditions and ways that brands are using them. Because for example. One popular way of usage, right? You’ll see paid usage or white listing, which just means that the literal thing you posted on social media, they will put ad dollars behind it.

So more people will see that thing. Some brands will say, we’re giving you exposure. It’s not exposure because you’re not getting followers from it. You’re giving the brand an opportunity for them to get more exposure. Yeah. Um, but as an example for that, if I, I’ll use myself. I have $76,000, I believe. Yes.

And I had a video that I posted that did really well, organically for me in terms of my community. [00:53:00] Really, like, loved it, showed up for it. I think I had like 200 comments just from my own community alone. Mm-hmm. Um, but algorithm, how many views did it get? Like maybe 10,000 views, which I would say again, they could have probably hired a creator with a million followers to get way more than that.

But they hired me ’cause they really liked my content and then they boosted that ad. Mm. And it has I think like a million views now. Wow. ’cause they boosted it, right? Mm-hmm. So the views as a smaller creator, they can come in other ways. Right? It’s really about you making sure that you have, you know, a strong community, strong, I would say skill and content creation.

That’s where you can charge up and down. And again, those terms and conditions charge up and down. I personally really always suggest that creators create, I’m gonna say the word rate card. Okay. But we’re never sending a brand a rate card. ’cause there’s nothing worse than having to make a brand do math.

Um, but have an internal rate card where, you know, alright, so for reels, I’ll use myself as an example of [00:54:00] 76,000 followers. My reels start at $4,000. My carousels, like if I had to do photos, $3,500. Mm-hmm. 

Erika: Um, 

Lissette: my stories, if it was by itself is 2K, but it is my lowest performing avenue. So if it was part of a campaign, probably just adding like 500 bucks for that.

So like these things, you wanna start adding them for usage. I love to use percentages, so I’m basically asking how long where? And I’m adding 20, 25, 30, 30 5% depending on how big of an ask it is. And I really just try to like. Feel it out for myself. Um, for exclusivity, I charge $2,000 per month of just being exclusive to someone.

I have, to your point, this is all up for negotiation, right? So the times that I’ll usually negotiate that down is if it’s a category I truly can’t imagine working with another brand in that category, or I’m so diehard, like I, I hope Adobe’s not listening for this, but I always give ’em a little discount on exclusivity because I’m like, I [00:55:00] literally have never used any other app that isn’t Adobe.

So sometimes I we’re like negotiating. I’m like, ah, the exclusivity part doesn’t really matter to me, so it’s fine. Um, I feel about 

Erika: QuickBooks. They’re my partner like that. 

Lissette: Yeah, right. You’re like, I’m not gonna use your competitor anyway. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You still ask for it and then when you’re negotiating, if it’s a little lower budget, you’re like, well, that’s fine.

Um, so all that to say, you have this rate card, what you’re negotiating, it makes it so much easier for you to go in and share a rate, but then when you’re negotiating, you know, what went into that rate.

So if they say, sorry, you know, you asked for seven K and sorry we have five. You can go back right? And say what really? Like, affected Okay. Exclusivity. Let me go back and say, Hey, do you mind if we remove exclusivity? Sure. Boom. Now the math makes sense, right? Like, now I’ve met you at a rate that feels good for both of us.

Totally. Um, in terms of, I would say I wanna share some like really good examples. Especially for smaller creators because I think bigger creators, it’s obvious that like you can charge just ’cause you have a [00:56:00] bigger follower size. Um, I do think actually a lot of really big creators under charge, which is very fascinating, like creators with half a million followers are charging with creators of 50 k are are charging.

Um, which again, thousands of dollars for someone is life-changing amounts of money. So I think that’s what a lot of those big creators think. They’re like, wow, someone is paying me and because I have a big following, I get to just easily charge thousands of dollars. But you’re actually undercharging yourself usually.

’cause there are creators with a million followers charging $20,000 for just one short post. So, but the smaller creators usually are the ones who need the real inspiration. And a lot of the creators that we work with, they are considered micros with air quotes, which is under 150,000 followers, believe it or not.

Um. And those micro creators, I would say on average, creators are earning anywhere from like three to six K per campaign. Just like no matter what. Like we have one creator, she’s 30,000 [00:57:00] followers and never gets paid less than 5K for just one campaign, one post with maybe some stories. Mm-hmm. And the reason that these smaller creators or the micro creators can charge so much, it’s exactly what I said.

All of those terms and validating with data. Right? So like validating with data or skill One. Using myself as an example, my average campaigns are about six $6,500 for like one real, one story set. 

Erika: Mm-hmm. 

Lissette: Why? How do I validate this? Because actually data is not my number one. I would say engagement is really good, but I don’t get.

Thousands of views. I don’t get the views that someone probably I, I’d say I have very average views at most, but still, right. So something that sets my campaigns apart is I whip out my professional camera. Everything is storyboarded, everything is like produced. You can look at all of my ads and I get comments every time being like, this looks like a real commercial.

This should be on television. That is something that [00:58:00] I use. So when I go and I tell brands, Hey, my rate, my starting rate, I always say 6,800. And then we kind of go up and down from that 6,800. Just to let you learn a little bit more about me and the way I work with ads. This is an example of a really well performing ad.

As you can see, I have a lot of engagement, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I’ll say, and most importantly, like, I produce my ads really well. Mm-hmm. Look at some comments that my community has shared and I have this canned response and I’m really just, I love that you do that. Yeah. And then people are like, that’s so exciting.

Well, how cool. We don’t have 68, but we have this, and then we’ll kind of go back and forth and figure something out. There have been also situations you did ask about, like giving discounts if it is a values-based company. If it is maybe like, you know, a company that, um, has lower budget but is asking for something very simple.

Mm-hmm. Um, one example is I have a long-term partner now for I think three years. Two or three years. Um, they are in the business space. And they did not have money to pay my full rates, but they really [00:59:00] liked my content. So what we decided on is we’d actually do UGC only, which for those who don’t know, is user generated content.

It’s content that you give to the brand never goes live. So we basically agreed on multiple videos per month that were prescripted for me by them, that I just sit, speak to camera and submit to them. Like, and they use it on 

Erika: your page, but you aren’t required to post it on yours. 

Lissette: Exactly. I don’t post on mine.

They get what they want out of it, which was my like name and likeness honestly. And it’s a great partnership. It is probably like a quarter of what I’d be paid nor normally, but it’s an easy thing we do every month and we go. Um, there’s also some examples where it’s like a small Latino in business or female in business and I just wanna support their work.

And I always say, you know, when I share my rates, these are my typical rates, but I am always happy to discuss what you got working with. And then I’ll usually hear that and I’m probably down give discount. Flag though, if I am giving a really big discount, like an example is there was a small, small company that I was working [01:00:00] with over the last year.

Their max was 2K and I really gave them like a lot for 2K personally. ’cause I was just so excited for them and what they were. Providing or creating Uhhuh. Um, but I always say, just so you’re aware, this is a discounted rate. Other creators of my size may not be as flexible with their rates, and if we talk again in the future, these may not be the same rates.

Erika: Mm. So I always, 

Lissette: yeah, protect myself, protect other creators, because I want them to know that, like if someone else says no, like don’t shade them for it, I’m doing you a favor. 

Erika: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s so smart. Wow. You shared so much with us. So, I mean, when people wanna get started, they should literally just start creating the content, right?

Do you think they should be outreaching to, to brands or should they just focus on creating their own content? 

Lissette: So brands are gonna wanna pay you when they have clear evidence that you reach their target consumer. So that takes time, right? It doesn’t take years, but it doesn’t take weeks. So it really just depends on [01:01:00] how frequently you show up.

So if I’ve been showing up once a week as, as mo as much as I can post, yeah, it might take you a year before you have that evidence, before you have that engaged community on this topic to prove to this brand that they should hire me. But if I’m posting twice a day, you know, which is crazy, but if I’m posting twice a day for two months, I’ve probably done all the evidence, right?

Yeah. So it’s not really like when do I reach out to brands? It’s like when do you have the proof that you have an engaged community and um, that’s really what they’re gonna be looking for. I also really suggest once creators have. Um, I’ve, I’ve feel like everyone’s thrown this word around, but now it’s a buzzword again, but signature series.

So like, if you have a series, you have a specific style, maybe it’s cinematic or like fun transitions or whatever, but like you have a, or like skits, if you do something specific that’s like ownable and you, and unique to you, great time to reach out to brands. ’cause you probably have proof, like the series has been going on, you have proof that has been successful and then you can go back and say, do you [01:02:00] wanna be a part of that?

Um, which is usually really fun for them. So that’s when I’d kind of reach out. But again, that all takes showing up. Mm-hmm. Finding consistency, which you’ll not find consistency unless you feel super confident in what you’re doing. Amazing. 

Erika: I just have one, I’d like one other quick question for you. So with TikTok being threatened, many times I saw a decline in TikTok campaigns.

I’m wondering if you saw the same thing and what your thoughts are now. Should people be focused back on it or what’s your take? 

Lissette: Oh, I, I mean that was my biggest prediction for 2025. I was like, what year are we in? Um, was less TikTok campaigns because brands are afraid and they don’t know where it’s going and that has a hundred percent been the case.

Yeah, I would say if you haven’t already, and I feel like hopefully most smart creators have already started to make communities elsewhere do that. But other than Instagram, Instagram is still the number one place that brands are hiring creators. I will say. Like if you have an Instagram following, you’re probably [01:03:00] getting reached out to by brands.

Mm-hmm. Um, the alternative, there’s two other ones that kind of like, have surprised me. LinkedIn has really surprised me. Yeah. Um, brands, hiring creators who have a really good LinkedIn presence. Also hiring speakers through LinkedIn. Yeah. So for example, we have a creator who’s very micro on Instagram, bigger on TikTok, but isn’t really getting a lot of TikTok campaigns just as we’re talking about, but is getting really amazing speaking engagements because they continue to show up on LinkedIn.

So Wow. Works out for them. And then YouTube. YouTube shorts has been a big ask lately. Um, so definitely I think those three areas would be really good. And for YouTube, again, because of shorts mm-hmm. You don’t have to go on YouTube and make the long like, you know, 10 minute videos. You can just repost your reels, repost your tiktoks there.

Um, just try some things out. We have a few creators who this month we’re celebrating hitting a hundred K on YouTube and it’s because of YouTube shorts. Wow. They don’t do that much long, long form content. So 

Erika: Amazing. Okay. Would you suggest that, ’cause we have [01:04:00] YouTube for the podcast, would you suggest that I just use the same YouTube channel for like, all my shorts and the podcast or different channel?

Lissette: I don’t know. Um, I feel because again, personal brand versus like a product, I feel like podcasts are products unless they’ve been already integrated into your personal brand. Right. So like, if it has a standalone social media, probably not. Okay. But it’s not. You’re not missing out on not using that, if that makes sense, because since it’s not gonna do so much for you to just like start throwing in, you know, your personal content or your personal brand, starting a, like a personal brand, YouTube right now would be the same amount of work.

You’re either gonna start doing this action or start a new channel. And I feel like starting a new channel probably gives you a better chance at developing like a personal YouTube brand. Um, one person I’d really look at, um, she’s a creator who I really admire. Her name’s Lucy Fink, [01:05:00] L-U-C-I-E. Um, she has been, actually was YouTube first, Instagram second.

Okay. But she did start a, um, podcast and I think that the way she did it was she integrated the podcast into her personal brand. Um, or let me just see. She, oh my gosh. So this is very interesting. Not, not us having a case study moment right now. Um, her podcast, the Real Stuff Pod has its own YouTube, but she posts, highlights and clips in her personal YouTube.

So it’s a good way, I think to maybe like take advantage of all the content you are creating. 

Erika: Yeah. Um, 

Lissette: but it seems like she did it the other way where like she had the existing personal brand started weaving in some of the like clips from her podcast. Yeah. But ultimately the podcast still lives on its own.

Erika: Okay. I think on Instagram it’s easier ’cause it, the podcast does have its own page, so I just do a collaborator so it’s easy ’cause it shows up on both. But with YouTube I feel like it’s been something I’ve been wanting to get into and I’m like, ah, so we’ll see. 

Lissette: [01:06:00] Yeah, we’ll see. Yeah, I, it’d be interesting to see what works for people.

Erika: Yeah. Cool. Is there anything I didn’t ask you? I mean, I asked you so much. Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you wanna share with people or anything that you wanna leave people with? 

Lissette: I, I am like, yeah, you did ask her so much and it was so thorough. I will say, woo. Okay, so one thing to know about building a creator career is brand partnerships are obviously like the big, shiny object.

They are probably the first way a lot of people make money ’cause brands are just constantly looking for creators, even if it’s just UGC, right? So making content for the brand’s platforms, but you, it’s not the only way to make money and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if that’s the only thing you chased.

Mm-hmm. So content creation, monetization. Mm-hmm. So loaded phrase, to me that means making money from your content. It can be through our partnerships, but it can also be through the platforms. It can also be through selling products, digital products. It can also be, you’ve [01:07:00] shown up as such a big authority that people are hiring you for extra work.

I have a client of mine who just got a consulting six month contract because they really trusted her expertise. Based on how she’s showing up. That is amazing. So you wanna make sure that you don’t narrow yourself into, if I didn’t make money working with brands, I am not successful because there’s so many other ways to make money as a creator.

Definitely, 

Erika: yeah. And I’ve seen that in my own business, through coaching, through speaking, through leading workshops, through, um, paid workshops, right? Like for to paid workshops to consumer, um, courses, things like that. So yeah, I love that you added that in as well. Lissette, this has been such a great interview.

Thank you so much for your knowledge. So for those of you listening, um, who wanna follow Lissette, where can they connect with you, work with you, and follow? 

Lissette: So I’m at Lisette Calv. I’m sure you’ll see the spelling in the title or show notes, and [01:08:00] you can follow myself there to get that big, you know, 360 picture of myself as an entrepreneur, running a creator agency, being a creator, and talking to creators.

Um, and then influence with Impact is our company. If you follow them, you will get strictly just creator advice, which some people, that’s all you want. So go for it and you can work with us in different ways. I think we pride ourselves on having multiple, you know, for multiple budgets and learning styles.

So definitely just peruse through our website, whether it’s a coaching setting, a group setting, just taking a solo product or course, and doing it by yourself. Um, you’ve, you’ve got something for you. 

Erika: Amazing. And we will link your socials, your website, all of that down below in the show notes. Lissette, thank you so much for coming on and for those of you listening, if you took anything away from this episode, take a screenshot.

Make sure that you tag us both. We wanna know if you have additional questions for Lissette, let me know so that we can have her on for a part two. And thank you so much, Lissette. 

Lissette: Thank you. [01:09:00]